Justice won't recuse himself

The club wants details of energy task force meetings.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A defiant Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused today to remove himself from a case involving Vice President Dick Cheney, a close friend, dismissing questions about a possible conflict of interest.
He rejected a request by the Sierra Club, which said it was improper for Scalia to take a hunting trip with Cheney while the environmental group's lawsuit involving the vice president was pending at the court.
"Even one unnecessary recusal impairs the functioning of the court," Scalia wrote in a 21-page memo.
Reason for suit
The Sierra Club is suing to get information about private meetings of Cheney's energy task force.
Scalia has maintained there was nothing improper about the trip he took with Cheney three weeks after the court agreed to consider the case.
Pressure on Scalia to stay out of the case had mounted in recent weeks, with calls from dozens of newspapers for the conservative Reagan administration appointee to recuse to protect the court's image of impartiality.
Supreme Court justices, unlike judges on other courts, decide for themselves if they have conflicts, and their decisions are final.
Judges must disqualify themselves from cases in which their impartiality "might reasonably be questioned." The Sierra Club asked for Scalia's recusal in February, pointing to the "American public's great concern about the continuing damage this affair is doing to the prestige and credibility of this court."
In an unusual response, Scalia said he will recuse himself when "on the basis of established principles and practices, I have said or done something which requires this course."
He said the hunting trip to Louisiana was planned before the energy case reached the court.
Those "established principles and practices" do not require or even permit him to step aside in the Cheney case, Scalia wrote.
Wants sessions to stay private
Cheney is fighting to keep private the details of closed-door White House strategy sessions that produced the administration's energy policy. The Sierra Club and a watchdog group contend that industry executives helped shape the administration's energy policy. Supreme Court arguments in the case are scheduled for April 27.
In addition to the Sierra Club, Democrats in Congress and some legal ethicists have called on Scalia to stay out of the case.
Scalia noted in today's memo that he has stepped aside in another case this term -- one testing the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.
For the first time, Scalia revealed details of his hunting trip with Cheney. Scalia was the go-between to invite Cheney to hunt with a Scalia friend, Wallace Carline, who owns an oil rig services firm, Scalia wrote.
Scalia and Cheney are friends from their days working in the Ford administration, Scalia noted.